Well, you win some and you lose some. We had previously celebrated when Karen O’s “All Is Love” got an 11th hour addition to the Oscar shortlist for Best Song when Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” was – depending on who you ask – disqualified or retracted for consideration as it was not written specifically for “Hannah Montana: The Movie.”
Unfortunately, Carter Burwell won’t get his shot at Oscar this year, as the Academy has ruled that the overall soundtrack for “Where The Wild Things Are” is too heavily blended with Karen O’s pop tunes. This is kind of bullshit considering the score disc of his work is just as long as the Karen O & The Kids disc. Plus his compositions actually carry the emotional weight of the film. Oh well, we guess you do lose some…
His work for the potential dark horse Best Picture nominee “The Blind Side,” has also been disqualified. Other scores vying for consideration that been ruled out include Nicholas Hooper’s work for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”; Mario Grigorov for “Precious” (though to be fair, if there was a score, we don’t remember it), Erran Baron Cohen’s work “Bruno” (really?) and the compositions for “Funny People” by Michael Andrews and Jason Schwartzman (again, we only remember the soundtrack from this one). Other film scores that were disqualified (even though they weren’t officially submitted) include “Crazy Heart” and Brian Eno’s work for “The Lovely Bones,” which is fine, because Eno might be god in ambient circles, but the score sounded like Yanni soundtracking a hair conditioner commercial.
Yet again, the Academy’s odd rules have shut out a great soundtrack (like “The Dark Knight” last year and “There Will Be Blood” the year before). While we liked Karen O’s work on “Where The Wild Things Are,” Burwell’s work is just as memorable and most importantly, integral to the overall feel of the film. Well, there are still 81 eligible scores from which one will emerge victorious but it’s kind of a hollow victory when you boot out one of the strongest contenders isn’t it?